Paradise is Burning (Paradiset Brinner)
Monday 20 January 2025
- Language: Swedish with English Subtitles
- Duration: 108 mins
| Monday 20 January
8pm |
Book Now |
For accessible / wheelchair seats please contact our Box Office team on 01 272 4030.
Paradise is Burning follows three sisters ― Laura (16), Mira (12) and Steffi (6) ― as they try to survive being abandoned by their mother. Enjoying a wild and unencumbered summer, their carefree reality is threatened when social services get in touch to arrange a home visit. Laura, shielding her sisters from this, faces a race against time to find their mother – or at least someone who will pretend to be her…
Mika Gustafson’s vibrant and energetic feature debut expertly balances the tension between angsty teenage rebellion and tender vulnerability – an intimate portrait of the transition from girlhood to womanhood backlit by a blistering-hot summer break. To use the directors own words, it is “a declaration of love to sisterhood”.
Directed by Mika Gustafson
Starring Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, Safira Mossberg and Ida Engvoll
Festivals:
Venice International Film Festival 2023
BFI London Film Festival 2023
Awards
Winner - Sutherland Award, First Feature Competition, BFI London Film Festival 2023
Winner - Venice Horizons Award, Venice Film Festival 2023
‘Bianca Delbravo is a revelation ... What sets Paradise Is Burning apart is the unique quasi-rural ambience and a set of performances that speak of great investment by film-makers and cast.’
Tara Brady, The Irish Times
‘Paradise Is Burning is a cinema verite-style exploration of the adolescent female experience, with Gustafson coaxing strong performances from her central trio and underpinning their work with sensitive directorial choices.’
Nikki Baughan, Screen International
‘Rage, tenderness and no small amount of laughter combine in this nuanced portrayal of the Swedish working-class from writer/director Mika Gustafson…. everything within the frame channels a hopefulness that adds to the film’s mesmerising lyricism.’
Grace Dodd, Little White Lies
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